Gabriel Patrick at Almost One Year

So, this is the first time I remember seeing blood. He hurt his mouth and was bleeding A LOT according to me... but then again I thought he had a temperature the other day when it read 97.9 degrees. Anyway, you can see the traumatic leftover tear he has, but he is still trying to smile for the camera in the midst of the pain!

Just the sweetest little face... he so looks like his dad.

This is our son who has been drinking out of a straw for months... people totally crack up when they see it. He LOVES drinking from his sippy cups with straws. So cute.

He was looking at his Daddy and laughing... he just adores him. Probably because he is strong enough to throw him around and make a waterfall/whirlpool in the tub. I have seriously never heard so much noise and water splashing at bath time! Mommy is a little bit less likely to soak herself and the whole bathroom... but, that makes Daddy "funner!"

Can you see his 2 bottom teeth? ... we finally have some! Yea!

So, I put him in his highchair today while making my lunch. I turned around after hearing him sing and clap for a while and saw this incredibly chill kid hanging out with one leg on the tray and leaning back like he was driving a cool car. It reminded me of how my brother use to drive. Oh, how silly he is!

Here he takes after his mom. Whenever we put him out back in the grass he tends to hold both legs in the air because he can not stand his legs or feet to touch the grass.. maybe it tickles. Here is the leg hold in action... he will hold it like this for ten minutes if we leave him there. We laugh so hard everytime. We have to work on this so he acts like a real boy and plays in the dirt.



A day when he was talking up a storm and helping me dust bust the kitchen. He is this pleasant all the time... even when on his most recent sleep strikes. Love 'em.

3 Poops, No nap, and an Ice Cream Cone

Life as a mom has a unique way of humbling us and making us feel insane, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I decided to write about yesterday because after seeing a good friend of mine who I haven't seen in a while I realized that even if no one else reads my blog, she finds comfort in knowing that there are other moms out there who have those days where they (as she said:) "die to themselves and die to themselves and the next day wake up and do it all over again." So, Maria, this one's for you.

Yesterday. Gabriel woke up in a state unlike many other mornings. Normally, I hear him talking and playing and sometimes even singing up there in his crib. Not yesterday. Yesterday he woke up screaming. A screaming as if pain was associated... so unlike other days, I took no time to slowly open my eyes and crawl out of bed. I didn't even allow this pregnant bladder to go to the bathroom before bolting up the steps to find out what could be wrong... nothing I discovered. He just decided to cry today. So, I tried to change his diaper, the whole while he screamed even harder and tried to flip around while I got poop all over myself, the ground and him and his outfit. It was fun. After changing him I realized he was pretty hungry or at least I thought food would ease the pain.. it did for a short while... then he pooped again. It was one of the grossest poops I have ever seen and smelled. It was half way up his back, all over his butt and covered his little guy (private part). It took about 12 wipes to get it all off and I sat considering a bath for quite some time until realizing that all this pooping had me running behind. After that I thought the day wouldn't get much worse. I had Encounter with Christ at my house yesterday morning and he did pretty good with all the distractions, but since his nap is usually at 11am and Encounter lasts till noon, he was overly tired. SO, I rocked him for a very long time... he fell alseep, I put him in his crib and he woke up. I thought, surely he will fall back asleep... nope... after 20 minutes, still awake, still crying and totally ticked at me. So, I got him out of his crib, giving up on the nap and tried to cheer him up for the next 20 minutes, while wiping snot off of me and him.... yuck. He was hungry again. So, I fed him. He eats like a vulture... HUGE bowls of food... tons. So, we sat and ate for about 40 minutes. Within 10 minutes of being done we had another poop... oh yes, just as grand and awesome as the last. At this point I decided to declare insanity because I just could not handle one more poop like this in my lifetime... at least yesterday I decided I couldn't. SO I changed it. That took about an hour and after he was clean, I laid on the ground next to him and just laughed. It is 1pm and I have had 3 poops and no nap. What better way to cure a little insanity: I pulled out the ice cream cones and chocolate and vanilla ice cream I have been craving every day of this pregnancy and I called Patrick and told him about our day so far... and he said, "What are you eating while you are telling me this?" "An ice cream cone," I said. He laughed so hard. "What!?" I said. "You are hilarious. I hope that helped." "It did," I said. We hung up the phone and I thanked Jesus for ice cream and the amazing sugar cones for the ice cream to go on top of and I licked that ice creamed and crunched that cone, while Gabriel (my well fed, well pooped, non-rested baby) played on the floor with his toys and giggled to himself while making car noises.

This is my life. This is what Jesus uses to make me holy. I have Jesus to thank for all the days of sleep strikes, poops and ice cream cones.

Marwige

Last weekend was our 3rd Three to Get Married retreat here in Nashville. The preparation and prayer and planning was super intense. With over 20 speakers, 12 couples, and the camp people to deal with I would have to say that it was purely God's grace that won us such a peaceful weekend. It wore me out so badly that I ended the weekend with the stomach flu... pregnancy and exhaustion don't go well together!!

With all that being said, I once again was amazed throughout the weekend at God's providential love within each and every couple who was there and each one who spoke. Each had been given such a different path in their marriage and to watch the fidelity through it all was simply uplifting. We had speakers who had converted to Catholicism, some who had spouses with cancer, some with 3 kids, some with 10 and others who were infertile. Some speakers who struggled with in-laws, some with how to raise their kids, others who were newly married, and none who were normal. It was amazing to see God's work in their hearts and lives and relationships. Each one had such a unique story which one way or another they all recognized as their path to holiness.

It was a reminder to me about the story I am living. What will the next page read and how have the previous chapters gone? What will the heavy crosses be and how will we get through? In the end, I don't think it matters as long as Christ is our center. Fr. Baker stressed throughout the weekend that marriage makes no sense whatsoever if you have no relationship with Christ, no goal of Heaven and you haven't decided to completely abandon yourself to Jesus. Of course, you could live life without having these things, but the bottom line is that your life will be pretty boring and pretty predictable. He sent quite a challenge to the couples to live always in the state of grace and to follow ALL of the Church's teachings instead of picking and choosing those you like. There is a wisdom in the Holy Spirit who has inspired the Church. Will we trust Him?

SO bring it. Lord, we abandon ourselves to you. What is it that you will ask of us? How can we be an image in our marriage of Christ's love for the Church.. the ultimate sacrifice.

We haven't been married quite three years and let me tell you, Christ has sent us on a roller coaster ride... it has required lots of trust, but the gifts from Him are countless and really quite hard to believe at times. He will never let you outdo Him in generosity.

Gabriel's First Easter

Cutie Patootie

Gabriel loves crawling under the desk when I am working. He usually manages to make quite a mess... tearing out all the coupons I have organized, pulling all the printer paper out, one sheet at a time, and then somehow getting stuck under there. This is him about to assume his position under the desk! See the look of pure joy (and mischief)?

Yes, he is stuck in a box. How did he get in there? We have no idea. I was sleeping (Patrick lets me sleep in now on the weekend when he is home, since I am el prego) and Patrick went into the kitchen to get his coffee... he came back to the living room to find Gabriel stuck in the box. We are already being very adventurous!

Smile for the mommy!

Look how much he just LOVES his Daddy! Admiration at its best.

Ok, I know, I am an airhead. I taped it sideways again... if you really want to see our little peanut, you will have to turn your head sideways. Sorry. Otherwise, you can just listen to him copy me... I love it! This particular instance, he decided to sing his words a little bit... he must get that from his dad.

Twice the fun...

We are so excited to announce that we are expecting another baby! Gabriel is going to be a BIG brother somewhere around Sept. 29th, 2010, which coincidentally (not really, with God there is no coincidence) is the feast of the arch angels Gabriel, Michael and Rafael. With that being said, Patrick was hoping for twin boys so all of our boys would have the names of the 3 arch angels... much to his disappointment we confirmed 3 weeks ago that there is only one baby in there, although he asked the doctor to check more than once to see if she could find anything else in there. She searched around during the ultrasound, but only one heartbeat and one little body.

We are about 12 or so weeks along and everything is going great. Thankfully I am not nearly as sick as I was last time. The nausea comes and goes and is mostly just bad in the mornings. During the day I am extra tired, but Gabriel is a great distraction. He keeps me on my toes and lets me forget sometimes how bad I really feel. He turned 10 months on the 10th and let me tell you... he can not get any more fun!!

My every day is SO bright because of him. He giggles so much, he copies everything I say and do, and he is really just so darn cute all the time. He vocabulary has made more progress and he has managed to copy me saying, "thank you" and "no no no no no." He also is able to climb all the stairs with no help and he has finally managed to chew and swallow cheerios with no gagging... he must take after his mom with the gagging stuff. He loves being outside just like any boy and he is doing so much better in the car these days. He has begun to have his attachment issues when his mom leaves, but other than that he never complains. We think that we are finally breaking through with a tooth.. it took him long enough!

As much as I love Gabriel, I really can not imagine having someone else in my life that I love just as much! We can not wait to add another little person to love in our life...

(Promise to put up pictures soon... we just moved, so I am not even quite sure where the camera is...)

9 Months a Peanut

Our sweet baby boy is growing and is now 9 months old... holy macaroni. I feel like it was just yesterday we brought him home. He is surely showing his maturation by finally sleeping through the night!! Yea! 8pm-8am with no breaks in between. What a big boy! We are so proud. Patrick and I threw a party the first morning we woke up and he was still asleep... then when he did it a week in a row... we threw a bigger party. Although he is getting older he is not gaining too many pounds. I think he has his mommy's genes and is going to be petite. Still around 15 lbs, but we go to the doc Friday, so we will update you then. Some other new things: He is loving music and dances now. I need to catch this on tape because his little bounces are hilarious and he only does it when music is on. He is concentrating very hard on... well, pulling all the papers out of the trashcan, pulling all the Tupperware out of the drawer, all my clothes out of the drawer, and all the clothes out of the dryer. He loves to destroy things. He's a true boy. More than any other place in the whole house, I find him in the bathroom... staring into the tub. He will always love the tub, although lately he is wanting to stand up the whole time he is in the tub... he's crazy. He loves me to read to him and is starting to copy all the sounds I make. When I say "poop" he responds with "p p p" and when I say "dad" he responds with "da" and in the mornings when he wakes up I can hear him crying, "Ma... Ma... Ma." It is so sweet. Sometimes I leave him for a while so I can hear him say my name more! He is eating TONS. He eats 3 HUGE bowls of food every day (food his daddy makes by the way... on Wednesdays when mommy works). He is still nursing some, but I feel that may end soon. He loves sweet potatoes more than anything else and he hates peaches. He is truly the sweetest boy ever. He waves to us and smiles at us all day long. He giggles a lot, but also has a very serious side, like I said before... when he is emptying things. Below are some recent pictures. Enjoy!

Daddy making Gabriel laugh!

Very Serious.

He loves when we push him around the house in this box!

What a ham! He stopped and smiled when he saw I had the camera.

Daddy and Gabriel sleeping on the couch... Patrick is so faking it for the picture. With the Olympics on right now, do you really think Patrick is asleep. No. We do not miss one event.

Mom-Mom dragging Gabriel around in a shopping bag! The simple joys.

Standing up in the tub. He laughs every time.
He thinks he is hilarious. He must get it from his mom.